A winning bid of R90 million on a Clifton villa yesterday broke South Africa's residential auction price record.

The previous residential record bid was on a house in Sandhurst Johannesburg for R54m, according to Joff van Reenen of The High Street Auction Company.

The villa in Nettleton Road, Clifton.

The bank-instructed Clifton sale of the Nettleton Ridge house provoked "live responses" from 29 countries, with more than 5 000 views of the house on their company website prior to the sale.

"The hammer fell at R90m, and the sale is now under confirmation for a five-day period. Confirmation periods are normal within the auction industry and not exclusive to this property, but five working days is the standard period for The High Street Auction Company and this effectively means the bank can exercise its right to accept or reject the offer within the period, and no other offers will be entertained during that time.

"Bank representatives attended the main auction in Johannesburg and are satisfied that it was conducted with all the legal compliance requirements met. The auction is non-suspensive, which means that the buyer will either pay cash or have a pre-approved bond."

Van Reenen says Thursday's auction of the Clifton house to a certain extent corrected the market in the area: "The house was previously for sale for R150 million and not even buyers with high value foreign currency to spend were prepared to consider that price.

"If you market your property at the correct asking price for the area and the current market conditions you will find a buyer, as this auction has just demonstrated.".

Van Reenen says it's interesting to note that a local Clifton resident made the highest bid. "It's someone who lives in Clifton and wants to stay there, so the property should remain in South African hands."

Lew Geffen of Lew Geffen Sotheby's International Realty says he's not in the least surprised by the quick sale.

"We've seen this time and time again that when a trophy home finally comes onto the market as a bank-instructed sale it will always attract the right buyer at the right price because it corrects the market.

"Mark Thatcher's house in Cape Town was sold under similar circumstances and an auction is an outstanding way to ensure a quick, effective and market-related result."

While Geffen would not identify the top bidders, he did confirm that they were local. They bid telephonically from the house in Clifton, where the auction was being live-streamed from Johannesburg. Others also followed the auction on The High Street Company's newly launched app.

"After an age on the market with no movement the auction achieved for the instructing bank what the seller had previously been unable to do with all the time in the world, because his asking price was simply too high for the market.

"We now have serious, committed buyers at the table with the bank that took the property, and that's all that counts in the end."

Van Reenen says this sale proves that only the right sort of properties are auctionable, and while auctioneers and realtors generally view each other as natural enemies, under the right circumstance well-aligned companies can work devastatingly well together and get the right result.